Chicken broth, is it OK?

This is the place to share your best homemade cat food and treat recipes with each other! Remember to use caution if your pet has allergies and to make any diet changes gradually so that your cat's stomach can adjust to the new foods you are introducing.

My Daddy has a question and thought this is the best place for it. With the weather getting colder, Daddy wants to make soups again. One of his favorites is homemade chicken veggie. He makes the broth from scratch by boiling chicken, veggies, and spices/herbs for hours. Now would it be OK if we got some broth to drink? Is there anything he should avoid so it won't upset our kitty tummies or worse?

Mom's worry about the chicken broth is that most stocks tend to be on the salty side. Salt means your kidneys have to work more, and so you lose the health benefits of getting them to drink more. Also, any good chicken stock is likely made with onions, which have enzymes that can be deadly to kitties.

If you must give them some broth, I would prepare some without using onions, and keeping salt to a minimum (or watering down the stock you give them at the last minute to dilute salt concentration).

Well the nice thing about making your own stock is that you control what goes in there. Daddy doesn't put much salt in his. He prefers other herbs and flavors (peppercorns for example). The important thing was about the onions. That's bad. That's really bad. He will have to look into that more. Thanks so much for telling him about it.

Daddy found this link about people foods and cats. I sampled a little of a tomato-based soup and was OK his parents have had cats for decades and haven't had a problem. But better safe than sorry. No onions or tomatoes in the broth and he will look further about other spices.

Hi, Sarge. When I had to go on a liquid fast a few years ago for tummy problems, my human made vegetable broth for me and then kept the rest of the soup for herself. She just cut up and boiled the vegetables (no onion, as you say) in spring water, and then after she strained off some of the broth for my consumption, she seasoned the rest to her taste. Worked out great for both of us. I can't remember if I've ever had chicken broth, but I think she'd make it from scratch the same way. (Aren't we lucky to have people who like doing this kind of stuff for us?)